The Human Fertility Collection (HFC) is a joint project of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Germany and the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) in Austria. The HFC has been designed to supplement the Human Fertility Database (HFD) and to incorporate a variety of international fertility data that are valuable for fertility research but do not meet all quality standards of the HFD.

The HFC features estimates from diverse; not necessarily official; data sources; including survey data and data reconstructions by individual researchers or research teams. Thus the HFC provides many alternative to official fertility indicators and is not limited to continuous time series. This flexibility allows to expand the geographical coverage of data to less developed parts of the world as well as to feature historical data and estimates. Due to variability in data origins and estimation methods used in the original data sources; the level of data comparability and reliability is sometimes lower than that of the HFD. Therefore; users must be cautious when using these data for their research.

At present; the HFC includes the following period fertility data specified for all the birth orders combined and by birth order (when available) provided in a standardized format: age-specific fertility rates; cumulative fertility rates; total fertility rates; and mean ages at birth. However; the process of data collection is not complete. More countries and additional fertility dimensions (region of residence; country of birth; marital status; sex; etc.) shall be added in the future. The database is being developed and updated on a rolling basis. Suggestions and submissions of new data to the HFC are very welcome.

SUGGESTED CITATION:

Human Fertility Collection. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) and Vienna Institute of Demography (Austria). Available at www.fertilitydata.org (data downloaded on [date]).